Confession of Negativity Overview
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Confession of Negativity Overview
Article
Editorial content: This page was written or translated by the Tsadra Foundation staff as part of the editorial project of this website. It is original content written or translated for the Bodhicitta Project.
Abstract
In chapter 2, Śāntideva demonstrates the importance of making offerings—material and nonmaterial—paying homage through veneration (prostrations), going for refuge, and, in particular, confessing one's evil deeds. By openly acknowledging one's past negative behaviors and tendencies through confession, only then can one begin to move in a different direction and transform oneself.
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Citation
Houlton, Simon. "Confession of Negativity Overview." Śāntideva: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative, September 13, 2024. https://bodhicitta.tsadra.org/index.php/Explore/Chapter_Two_-_Confession_of_Negativity_Overview.
Interconnections
1 Scholarship on
An "Introduction to Bodhisattva Practice," the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra is a poem about the path of a bodhisattva, in ten chapters, written by the Indian Buddhist Śāntideva (fl. c. 685–763). One of the masterpieces of world literature, it is a core text of Mahāyāna Buddhism and continues to be taught, studied, and commented upon in many languages and by many traditions around the world. The main subject of the text is bodhicitta, the altruistic aspiration for enlightenment, and the path and practices of the bodhisattva, the six perfections (pāramitās). The text forms the basis of many contemporary discussions of Buddhist ethics and philosophy.
